"Long Road Ahead" May 19, 2023

[mlvilv]

Having a swell time on the ship with Isaac... This one seems like it should be obvious but I'm just not getting there. Cheers

[SusieG]

Have been painting exterior trim and doors while the weather is dry and not even thinking about the puzzle. Sat down to look at it a few minutes ago and I have no idea. Actually, some ideas but they were dead ends.

[ColeTrain]

On ship for this one.

[Bob cruise director]

Ever have one of those "grid done Thursday, still lost at sea Sunday" weekends? How about "check engine light caused by 3 cups of sunflower seeds beneath the air filter" weekends?
IMG_6035.jpeg

@curtremarks The problem is much, much worse than a few sunflower seeds. About 20 years ago, all car makers changed over from oil based insulation on all the wires on your car to soy based insulation. The soy based insulation attracts rodents of all kinds that gnaw on the insulation causing all sorts of problems. And since they build the car around the wiring, the costs can be high enough to total your car.

Here is my experience from a few years ago - my two cars are garaged

Camry
November 30, 2017 - repair wiring damage $528.43
December 7, 2017 - repair wiring damage $542.26
December 12, 2017 - repair wiring damage $275.22

Sienna
December 5, 2017 - repair wiring damage $37.23 (it was more but my mechanic had pity on me)
June 13, 2018 - repair wiring damage $452.41

I added ultrasonic noisemakers to both cars (I can't hear it but the young mechanic at the shop can)
Added bags of moth balls to both cars
And we put in every kind of trap known to mankind all over the garage - and we catch mice, especially in the spring and the fall.

And we plugged up every hole no matter how small, between the house and the garage. Our pest control guy says a mouse can fit through a hole the size of a dime.

And based on readings on the web, I got off lucky. You read about cars with $10,000 or more damage or being totaled. And it is not covered by insurance.

[Bob cruise director]

Good evening muggles

Our final count is 8 on the ship and 197 on the shore.

Good luck winning the mug.

And try WLW's SSS and tomorrow here MMM. A lot of fun.

[Louwers]

Safely ashore! Very satisfying road trip

[JAQT]

A late start but ashore (I think) after several consecutive weeks spiralling down (Look DOWN anyone?) unsuccessful rabbit holes.

[aaugusti]

I woke up this morning on the ship. A nice family cruise. Kasia and the girls went to run a 5k (the girls first) and I escorted them to watch. Donuts for breakfast followed (very tasty!). Later on while sipping a cocktail with Isaac at the new and improved outdoor bar on the ship a rogue wave hit the ship and took me overboard. I then woke up on a beach (Kasia next to me) with a bottle of Justin isosceles not knowing how we got there. She also was clueless as to the events that placed us on the warm, sunny beach. The wine, however, was quite tasty.

Then we were visited by three wise muggles that explained that we were on the right beach, and were able to explain to us how we arrived on the beach we were at.

[Relic]

Answer submitted. Time for a cold beer.

[JAQT]

Ever have one of those "grid done Thursday, still lost at sea Sunday" weekends? How about "check engine light caused by 3 cups of sunflower seeds beneath the air filter" weekends?
IMG_6035.jpeg

I wanted to hit the "like" button here, on account of I've never seen or heard of anything quite like that, but in the end I didn't think that "like" was the right reaction.

Hope it was easy to fix, and wonder on the theories you might have on how it happened. Those look like whole sunflower seeds, and not just shells.

[curtremarks]

Mary got us to wading distance and I lugged the boat in. We're on shore!

[hcbirker]

[sharkicicles]

@Scott Lindholm I bet that with muggle support, we can supply your daughter with tags from every team in MLB. I can definitely get a Sox (the red ones and not the white ones) tag

Appreciate the thought, the other daughter and I already have some semi-devious plans of our own involving tags and an alternate address if Carter gets lost. Should be a great wedding present.

Since days of bumper stickers are all but gone, team-logoed license plates can have allegiances realigned with careful measurements and patient searching for correctly-sized stickers. From experience, I know it can take brothers-in-law weeks and months of dirty looks, angry honks, and single-digit signaling before digging the changes.

[Barney]

This was the second week in a row where I 𝓰𝓾𝓮𝓼𝓼𝓮𝓭 the right answer immediately on seeing the puzzle (data last week, Sesame Street this), but didn’t bother to try to actually solve it (or submit it).

Is it a rabbit hole if you jump in and immediately grab a big rabbit?

Congratulations to those with more patience to find the answer in this brilliantly tricky construction.

[Plymouthrock]

Not Sesame St?
The clue is TV (abbreviated) show
Wondering…

[Joe Ross]

Not Sesame St?
The clue is TV (abbreviated) show
Wondering…

IMSO, you deserve this. You make an excellent point!


(Image stolen shamelessly from @bhamren's avatar.)

[eagle1279]

Not Sesame St?
The clue is TV (abbreviated) show
Wondering…

I pondered which to submit, ultimately decided Sesame Street is the name of the show, not the name of a street. Also looked for a confirming clue, i.e. a grid answer with REE (missing letters from St.). Decided either answer will likely be accepted.

[jenirvin]

I submitted SESAME ST(REET). lol Cover all my bases. Did anyone else notice that SESAME was also hidden in connecting letters in the grid starting at 38? And that it intersected with "ST"?

[pjc]

I pondered whether to submit STREET or ST - but a quick Google showed that the name of the show is SESAME STREET (not SESAME ST) and the "Contest Info" wanted the name of the show, so went with the longer version. I suspect either would do.

[femullen]

Swwwwiiiiing! and a miss.

Not even close, and the end of my longest streak (at 10, I think).

This was the old story of getting fixated on the first thing I saw, to wit, that to complement the many thoroughfare abbreviations in the theme answers, I found that 13D ended in RD and 43D ended in ST. Furthermore, these were the only grid answers that ended this way. It seemed to me meaningful that abbreviations for "road" and "street," the most common names for thoroughfares, were not included in the themes. And so, take the remaining letters--A,W,O, and D--and do all the usual things you do with letters: what clues start with those letters, what grid answers include those letters, et many alia.

Ah, well. Maybe this week I'll get back on TRK.